NCIS: Los Angeles Recap: The 3rd Choir

Logo for the United States television series NCIS: Los Angeles.Wikimedia Commons/Uploaded by Cbinnix

“NCIS: Los Angeles” Season 6 Episode 4 “The 3rd Choir” aired last Monday, Oct. 20, 2014 at 10:00 pm on CBS. In this episode, the entire team worked together as they raced against time to save Operational Manager and Special Agent Henrietta Lange (Linda Hunt) from her old nemesis, Mattias Draeger. Meanwhile, Intelligence Analyst Nell Jones (Renee Felice Smith) got a visit from psychologist Nate Getz (Peter Cambor), who tried to help her out with the post-shooting trauma she was going through as a result of killing someone in self defense. Read on to learn more about this episode.

At the beginning of the episode, Mattias Draegar (Jurgen Prochnow) followed an old man and killed him in cold blood at Venice Beach.

In Washington, Hetty met up with Admiral Killbride (Gerald McRaney), who suggested that she consider working in Washington as she would have a greater impact and chance to affect policies. However, she turned him down and told him that she was not a politician and that she needed to get back home soon as her people back in Los Angeles need her. As she left with her armed escorts back to the congressional hearing, she told him that she hoped that he and Director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) were not using the hearing for their own dirty work.

Back in Los Angeles, Special Agent G Callen (Chris O’Donnell) took out wads of cash from his safe. Back at the operations center of their headquarters, Special Agent Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) brought Technical Operator Eric Beale (Barrett Foa) some breakfast while he working on finding Mattias Draeger. Eric then informed Sam that his partner has turned off his cellphone an hour ago and that his car was parked near a metro station. Sam then told Eric that G was out “hunting” and he could be anywhere in the city.

As soon as Special Agent Kensi Blye (Daniela Ruah) and her partner, Detective Marty Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen) came in, Assistant Director Owen Granger (Miguel Ferrer) asked them where Nell Jones (Renee Felice Smith) was. However, it seemed like Nell still hadn’t recovered from the fact that she had shot someone the day before.

G then came in and went directly to ops, ignoring the fact that Granger was calling after him. He then told Eric to put out Mattias’ picture on all social media sites, and to offer a reward of $ 236,000.00, his entire life savings, for information on Mattias.

As soon as Deeks, Kensi and Granger got into ops, Granger ordered everyone to go out except for the late arrivals. After Eric sealed the room, Granger told them that they were operating on “Principalities Level." He said that only the people in the room were allowed to know anything and to work on anything regarding Mattias Draeger. Kensi explained to Deeks that the principalities were the highest level of angels, the “third choir." Sam simplified it by telling Deeks that it was “Hetty’s version of Code Red." Granger then told G that he would not authorize him to put out a reward for Mattias, but he was too late as he had already done so with his own money. Deeks then reminded them that the last time Mattias was in Los Angeles, he had not been there for Hetty, but for a book. As G and Sam left ops in order to go around the city to distribute Mattias’ picture, and to ask if anyone had seen Mattias, Granger told Sam to “keep G under control”.

Meanwhile, back at Washington, Congressman Michael Thomas came in earlier than the rest of the members of the panel at the congressional hearing. There, Hetty, who was also early, asked him how long he was going to drag out “this fiasco.” However, he said that he wanted to wait for “the others” to return. He also told her that all he wanted was accountability. As it seemed like they could do anything without being held accountable for their actions. However, she told him that he had no idea what kind of sacrifices they had to make each and every time in order to ensure that his and every other family in America would be safe.

During the hearing, Congressman Thomas started bearing down on Hetty for blatantly disregarding protocol, in order to get the job done. While this was happening, she received a text message from Granger, which told her that Mattias was back in Los Angeles. After this, she asked the Congressman how far he would go to protect his own family. To this, he told her that he would do everything within the law to protect his family. She then told him that she would do the same for her team, which was her family, but the Congressman pointed out that her team was not her family. Then Hetty walked out on them and escaped using the elevator. She then tripped the fire alarm and got out of the building by jumping out of a window to land in a nearby dumpster. She did this as she knew that she had to get back home right away.

Back in Los Angeles, Eric tried to call Nell to see if she was doing okay. However, Nell, who was at home, just stared at the gun on her table. Their psychologist, Nate Getz (Peter Cambor) came to see her, and together, they went out for some fresh air. During their walk, Nell told him that she had been disturbed by the fact that she had been thinking about the family of the guy that she had shot, and that her subconscious was already trying to suppress her memory regarding the incident, even if they had prepared well for the day that it would happen. Nate then told her that she was a victim of post shooting trauma and that that man who was going to kill her did that to her. Nell then told him that next time “she wouldn’t want to feel the same way”, and because of that, Nate told her that if that was true, then that meant that she was not ready to go into the field because in the field, she wasn’t just protecting her own life.

Sam and G then visited a local gangster named Salazar and told him that if they find Mattias, that they should call them and “stick with him" until they came. Sam then reminded G that they all want to find Mattias but that they should be careful and not to “set the city on fire” to reach their goals.

At ops, Eric found out that Mattias had killed a man named Ryan Green on Venice Beach, Kensi, Deeks, Sam and G went to check it out, as it seemed like Mattias had killed Green in order to get his identity. Before they left, Granger informed them that Hetty had gone missing in Washington after he had informed her that Mattias was in Los Angeles.

At Venice Beach, when Eric called Green’s cellphone, a young man, and not Mattias answered it. Then, all of a sudden, several shots were fired from the rooftop by Mattias in an attempt to injure the team. G rushed to get to the rooftop where Mattias was, but when he got there, he was gone.

Back in Washington, Hetty was caught by the Admiral, trying to sneak away on a military plane bound for Los Angeles.

Back at the boatshed, the team realized that the Venice Beach incident had been a trap to lure them there. The team then became concerned when they learned that Hetty was on her way to Los Angeles, as it seemed as if they were playing into Mattias’ hands. After G left for ops, despite the warnings of Granger that Wallace and her team was still there, Granger warned Sam to keep his partner under control, as their entire operation was under scrutiny, and because he knew what as Hetty was the closest thing G had to family, that he was prepared to do everything and anything in order to keep her safe.

Afterwards, Nate told Granger that he was not sure that Nell was ready for the next step in becoming an undercover agent, and decided to stick around for Nell’s sake, and also because he wanted to help the team out on the field.

Sam and G then paid a visit to a local Russian mob boss named Arkady, as the decoy on Venice Beach had been a Russian National. After they told him that Mattias had attempted to kill them and kidnap Hetty, Arkady told them that the Cold War was not yet finished, and that getting Hetty would allow Mattias to gain access to many things as she had a lot of secrets. However, he also told them that Hetty was not the only target and that those “attacks” were just the beginning. They were then informed that Eric had gotten a hold of a video of Salazar, demanding for his money as they had caught Mattias.

Meanwhile, Nell, who was still at home was surprised when she received a phone call from Hetty. She told her that she had shot a man in self-defense, but Hetty told her that she needed her to focus, as she was going to be in Lost Angeles in a little while. She instructed Nell to have a helicopter and a car with some her weapons ready for her.

Without waiting for back up, Sam and G went to Salazar’s place, only to find Salazar’s men dead and Salazar tied to a chair with a grenade, which exploded just as soon as they had run out of the place. Because of everything that had been happening, they could not understand why Mattias hadn’t killed them yet. The everything made sense to them after Eric told them that Mattias had found the boatshed, but when Granger and Nate went over, they found nothing. On a hunch, G felt around under his car and found a tracking device. They then realized that Mattias had lured them to Venice Beach to tag them so that they could lead him to their headquarters so that he could capture Hetty.

However, before Eric could stop Hetty from entering the building, he saw that Mattias had her at gunpoint. He instructed her to go with him, or else he would inject her with a solution that he had injected into her before when they last met. However, they were interrupted by Agent Wallace who had wanted to interview Hetty. Hetty then took the opportunity to shoot Mattias, who, unfortunately, was wearing body armor. He then proceeded to shoot Agent Wallace twice in the leg. Nell suddenly arrived and knocked Hetty away from Mattias’ bullets, and drew her gun as Hetty needed her protection. Mattias then told Hetty to surrender and to drop their weapons. As Nell and Hetty could see that the others were coming back already, Hetty decided to play along for the time being. After a while, Mattias was surrounded by Deeks, Nate, Granger, Kensi, Sam, Nell and G, who all had their guns pointed at him. Realizing that he had no way out, he surrendered himself. But before he moved another step, Hetty shot him in the leg. They then all then welcomed Hetty back home.

And that’s all for the recap of “NCIS: Los Angeles” Season 6 Episode 4 “The 3rd Choir”. For more news, updates and recaps on “NCIS: Los Angeles” and other television shows, keep on following Movie News Guide (MNG).

About the author

Kitin Miranda enjoys writing, learning new things, telling stories, and doing theater. When she is not busy with her many projects, she can be found reading a good book, writing poetry or fiction, updating her blog, discovering new food places around her neighborhood, or watching American or Asian TV shows.